Final Presentation

After nearly 20 months of dedicated work, the strategic plan for St. Bridget Parish has been presented and accepted by the Pastoral Parish Council. The committee is excited to have a well-developed plan to build community, enhance ministries, encourage discipleship, transition leadership, improve communication and much more. The full plan will be shared at a celebration event in the fall.

*Please note: this is an ongoing plan and not all items listed will be implemented in the first year.

Initiatives

We will develop action plans to accomplish established objectives that will define who is accountable, criterion for measuring progress and the plan's completion, and strong parish communications.

Accountability means clearly identifying the rolls that staff and volunteers are to play in parish management.

Measurement – What kinds of metrics should we be looking at. Some examples are counts of new members, baptisms, confirmations. Giving – average gift, %ACH versus envelopes. Members leaving (hard to track). Should we consider a parish wide survey to better understand what members would like in their parish? Should we investigate new software to better serve the needs of our parish?

Communication – What messages do we want to communicate? What is most effecting. An example is welcoming new members. We could have a video display welcoming new members with their names. Having new members stand during a welcome so we can see who they are.

We will develop an effective volunteer leadership team and a structure that invites and engages every member to become involved in ministry, music and leadership roles to create a more dynamic experience of worship and parish life.

Ministry involvement – What is our current status of our ministries? How are our ministries managed? Should we have a ministry manager or coordinator who works with the ministry leaders. How do we track our ministers? How do we get more people involved in the ministries?

Music – How is our music perceived by the parish. Do they like it? How does it add to the liturgy? How can we get more people involved in the music programs?

Volunteer leadership – How does volunteer leadership work. What would make it better? Should there be an overall volunteer coordinator?

We will establish a regular calendar of events providing frequent opportunities for parish wide fun, education and personal growth.

Parish life experience and fun events – we are having a Booya in October. What other fun things might we consider to build our sense of parish community? An idea would be to expand our morning offering beyond coffee and doughnuts. Other ideas are games, music events, theater, dances or other activities that would attract youth, adults and families to become involved and look to the parish as a source community events. Another idea might be a St. Bridget theater company.

We will establish programs and a culture of active outreach to youth, new members, the un-churched and de-churched and all who are in need in our community.

Evangelization - What can we do to create a culture of outreach? What does that look like? Who are the de-churched and unchurched in our community? How do we create an attractive and pertinent message when we identify them?

We will create a structure that ensures the spiritual development and continued successes of the parish and assures smooth leadership transitions.

Leadership transition – what does it look like? What leadership structure will be needed if we eventually have only a weekend pastoral leader? What leadership structure is needed now to support our overworked pastor? What leadership may be necessary if our initiatives are successful?